


B is for...

by TrickedThem



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen, Hanamiya Makoto centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-09 01:28:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3231119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrickedThem/pseuds/TrickedThem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Boredom, bad boys and broken.</p><blockquote>
  <p>Boredom. That’s the feeling Hanamiya is most familiar with. Whether he is in school or playing basketball. But every once in a while he gets to trap a prey in his webs to entertain him. After all whether it’s genius or prodigy, once it’s broken, it’s just garbage.</p>
</blockquote>
            </blockquote>





	B is for...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cuddlebros](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlebros/gifts).



> For cuddlebros, whose words and encouragement helped me write this. I wouldn't have went this far without you.
> 
> This is unbeta'd, please excuse any mistakes.

Boredom. That’s the feeling Hanamiya is most familiar with.

In fact, one of the earliest memory he can remember is of him sitting on the floor surrounded with his lego bricks, with no desire to play with them. There is only so many constructions he can build before the act gets repetitive. He could build some more if only to destroy them, but the novelty of watching something he made crumble beneath his fingers has faded a long, long time ago as well.

That was when he was five.   
  
Hanamiya can remember his approximate age because that was when he was eligible to finally start education, education that is not his tutors. Before the new school year starts, his parents decided to enrol him in a private yochien. The same yochien that was highly recommended by his parents’ business colleagues. They left all menial work of taking care of Hanamiya, from making his bentos to attending the meetings and gatherings his mother should have to the staff.* The little details aren’t really important in the grand scheme of things.

The first month is the introductory period. The teachers slowly making the students get used to the school day and order, putting up with the constant cries from the kids who never really were away from their parents for so long. That part weird Hanamiya out, why are they crying when they will see their parents in a couple of hours? But it is okay, he doesn’t really mind all of that, can even deal with it.   
  
What he can’t deal with is the pace, which is the worst part of yochien in Hanamiya’s opinion. It is dreadfully, no, criminally boring. Staying on everyone’s pace. Learning one thing at a day, sometimes over the period of two or three days. Perhaps he should mention something to his parents?

One rainy day, Hanamiya’s cheeks hurt from constantly resting his head on his hands and he decides enough is enough. He will talk to his parents about his school life as it is. Not the usual pleasantries exchanged at dinner. He will tell his parents about the boredom, about the possibility of him withdrawing form school to stay home and continue with his private tutors.

Later the day, Hanamiya is almost fidgeting in his chair. His father glances at his from the corner of his eye and Hanamiya stills. He looks at his plate and eats in silence, his father words ring in his ear, “ _Businessmen don’t fidget, Makoto.”_  He doesn’t need to be told twice.   
  
By dessert, Hanamiya has finally gathered his courage. Once the words leave his mouth, his father stops eating and turns to look at him. 

"These are your future partners. You have to form connections with them from the start." His father rebukes him, leaving no space for further discussion. While his mother daintily wipes her mouth with a napkin and turns to him with a smile. Her gaze is excruciating, the soft smile doesn’t hide the sharpness of her eyes.

"If you want, your tutors can be there in the evening." She says at last before resuming her meal as if nothing happened.

Hanamiya should be happy with the compromise but how can he when he is back to being stuck with boredom for hours. He will have to learn to hide his boredom better and hopefully occupy himself as well.   
  
Two months later and Hanamiya has gotten really good at doodling.

__

In elementary, he stops doodling instead of taking notes. He starts outlining strategies and plans ever since his mother introduced him to board games. His mother sat him down and started teaching him two weeks before his birthday. It is the closest Hanamiya felt to her and at the same time, the longest time he spent with her in a long while.   
  
As a result, Hanamiya makes sure to always be available on ever Saturday and Tuesday with the board game of choice ready. Pity that Hanamiya can’t ask her to play with him more often. On some days he asks some of the staff to play with him. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they aren’t. The games with them keep getting easier either way.   
  
(By the time Hanamiya graduates from high school, not even his mother would provide much of a challenge. Not because Hanamiya has finally gotten better than her, but mostly because by that time they recognise each other’s patterns too much for the games to be exciting. It becomes comforting, reassuring and how they bond. But that’s still far, far away in the future.)

In school, Hanamiya doesn’t really try to make friends. He is busy making up strategy, hoping to beat his mother one day. It doesn’t help that no one could hold his attention for long, it is all illogical behaviour and childish grudges. Never mind that if someone sat some of the students down and explained things, it would have gone a long way for the squabbling children. Hanamiya would never do that, not in a million years. He is not that patient, nor is he that selfless and kind.  
  
It is also around that time that Hanamiya starts going online to look for more diverse opponents, whether in chess or shogi. 

__  


"Makoto, you should join an extracurricular activity. Being inside all day is not good for you." His mother chides one Saturday afternoon, head resting on her open palm and tea cup in hand. Her eyes are trained on the board between them. Today, chess is the game of choice. She taps her chin and places the tea cup down to move her Queen closer to his King, taking his bishop in the process. Hanamiya, who still hasn’t said a word, can already see his defeat in two turns. Doesn’t mean he will concede the game.   
  
"I will see, mother." Hanamiya finally speaks as his mother topples his King. She hums in agreement and starts rearranging the pieces again.   
  
__

  
The next Tuesday Hanamiya makes sure to grab a handful of pamphlets on the way home. He is already in his last year of elementary, and normally it would be too late, but no one tells the students of the prestigious elementary school he attends no. Not on small things like that, anyway. Not with how much they pay every year.

He stuffs them in his bag, only to look at them half an hour before dinner when he holes himself up in his bedroom. He starts discarding pamphlets one by one as he goes through them, those he can already play are put to the side along with those that intrigue him.  
  
Drawing is balled up and thrown into the rubbish. The swimming club pamphlet follows it soon after. There is no exerting his brain in swimming, he just swims. The literature club is left for more consideration. While the tennis pamphlet is torn up to pieces and placed atop the baseball club’s.   
  
In the end only the literature, volleyball and basketball clubs are the ones that sound promising.  
  
Five minutes later and the volleyball pamphlet joins the tennis’ in the bin. Despite the strategic allure of being a setter, the whole sport it is too limiting for Hanamiya to choose it. One role to fulfil can’t contain him. Basketball on the other hand…   
  
By the time he goes down for dinner, thoughts of joining the literature club and of checking his shogi game with theabsolutemperor and finally cornering his ōshō** are completely forgotten.


End file.
